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But did you know that if you currently own your equiptment you will be charged $4.99 for your FIRST receiver in addion to every other receiver? That is unless you turn your equiptment in to D* and become a leasing customer...

This is according to a friend of mine who is the manager of the TV department at my local Circuit City. He said that CC got the info today about how the transition will take place.

Dude, it says right in the thread you linked to that there's no fee for the first receiver (several times, in fact)...

The new Lease Program requires customers to pay a nominal lease fee, some examples of which are highlighted below (please note that the following illustrations are for new customers only). Note that the monthly lease fee is in addition to applicable programming charges:

You will notice that in this price quote it only talks about NEW customers. Nothing is ever mentioned about existing customer. Nothing anywhere states what is going to happen to existing customers...

There was FAQ included.

10. Q: How are existing customers affected by the lease model?

A: They aren’t. Existing customers who have already purchased hardware will continue to own their hardware. New customers who sign up for DIRECTV will be leasing the equipment. However, if an existing customer wishes to add additional receivers to what they already own on or after March 1, 2006, the newly acquired receivers will be under the terms of the lease model and the customer will be considered a mixed household, in which case they will be charged a lease fee on their leased equipment.

Quick question in regarding to the new leasing option after 3/1. What happens with the insurance thing? For example, I own my own equipment but have the insurance on my account incase anything goes wrong such as a bad multiswitch, bad DVRs, etc. A relative of mine is considering getting D*. I know for sure if she does it will not be until after the leasing starts on 3/1. Since she will be leasing, replacing equipment will or should be at no cost to the customer (correct?). What about then faulty cabling or the dish becoming misaligned? Can someone clarify on how these things will be dealt with now D* is going to leasing? Thanks!

SBYou will still have to have a service contract to cover the dish/wiring/swtichesbut the recievers will be covered under the lease

I have been a D* customer for a little over 4 years now - I have 7 receivers on my account right now - I have NEVER taken the protection plan, however...........

when I had receiver issues (twice), after going through all the trouble shooting with the techs while on the phone, they have sent replacement receivers (only paid a S&H charge). They NEVER brought up needing to have the protection plan.

I am sure it would be different with most dish problems - they would have to send a contractor and there would be a fee, however..................

if your dish is installed correctly and securely it should take a few years at the earliest before you needed any work on it and the cost to have someone re-aim it would only be $40 dollars or so (takes all of 5-10 minutes even on the AT9).

I have been a D* customer for a little over 4 years now - I have 7 receivers on my account right now - I have NEVER taken the protection plan, however...........

when I had receiver issues (twice), after going through all the trouble shooting with the techs while on the phone, they have sent replacement receivers (only paid a S&H charge). They NEVER brought up needing to have the protection plan.

I am sure it would be different with most dish problems - they would have to send a contractor and there would be a fee, however..................

if your dish is installed correctly and securely it should take a few years at the earliest before you needed any work on it and the cost to have someone re-aim it would only be $40 dollars or so (takes all of 5-10 minutes even on the AT9).

To me, this protection plan is not realy needed -

well everyone can bad month cable all they want,(including me) but at least they don't charge a service fee when something goes wrong,and they replace bad equipment,when they fail, personally i can't wait to see what happens to cable in march, i'm already seeing t.v. adds about lower price's even freecable internet. now that will give dtv and dish a run for there money.

Why would you pay a mirroring fee on the receiver that has the primary services attached to it? I have a feeling that CC manager is just miffed at the price increases he's going to have to put on all the D* receivers come next Wednesday...

How many receivers do you have? Your bill should show a mirroring fee for each additional receiver after the 1st....SO if you have 2 receivers, your bill should reflect your programming package price, and then a $5 minus a few cents for a mirroring fee for receiver 2...DVR fee is another $5 or $6 depending on how long you have had a DVR....

But did you know that if you currently own your equiptment you will be charged $4.99 for your FIRST receiver in addion to every other receiver? That is unless you turn your equiptment in to D* and become a leasing customer...

This is one area where a cable company is a better choice. If you only want the basics on a tv or if you buy your own set top box, you don't have to pay anything additional. I priced out 4 DVR's and similar channels and Comcast was no match for DirecTV, so I am staying where I am (and have been for 10 years) until Fiber TV is here in the spring!